A MARKETING BREAKTHROUGH

Another breakthrough today in the marketing effort that Ken McIntosh and I are making in support of our recently-published book "NO DOG BARKED: Who Killed the MacLauchlans?". A professor in the Simon Fraser University Department of Criminology was very impressed by our book and our research, and told me he will be encouraging use of both by some of his students. He also bought a Library Edition copy. (Thus far we have sold about 60 copies!)

BC Book Look review -- "Crime and no punishments in New West..."

Ken McIntosh and I received a quite favorable review today in Alan Twigg's BC Book Look. In describing "NO DOG BARKED: Who Killed the MacLauchlans", the "Sky Box" come-on sentence beside the masthead was nicely catchy and a bit ironic: "Crime and no punishments in New West. After six years of research into Metro Vancouver’s drug underworld of the 1960s, the unsolved murders of an abortionist and his wife have been extensively re-examined with a non-fiction inquiry."

Ken and I like the sound of "extensively re-examined" for sure!

In the main page of the story, reviewer Beverly Cramp described our book as "(containing) characters [who] are reminiscent of a film noir thriller from 1940s Hollywood. Dr. Robert Henry MacLauchlan made a lot of money smuggling heroin and performing abortions. The good doctor ‘gone bad’ was about to be put on trial for smuggling heroin when he was murdered gangland style in New Westminster – shot in the head and the abdomen." Ms Cramp did seem to think the book was a bit long at 395 pages. 

Remember, readers, YOU can get your very own review copy of either edition by contacting rpdrown@hotmail.com

PRICES: Library Edition (495 pages) $30. Basic Edition (398 pages) $25. 

SALES BRISK!

"NO DOG BARKED: Who Killed the MacLauchlans?" the new book on the MacLauchlan Murders by Ken McIntosh and me, has been available for about two weeks now. Sales have been brisk! Between us, Ken and I have sold nearly 50 books! Once again, we thank New Westminster Public Library for buying one for their collection. We also have orders from Burnaby Public Library and interest from Vancouver Public Library.

This book comes in two versions – a Basic Edition (397 pages) and a Library Edition (495 pages). The former tells the basic story of the MacLauchlans’ demise and comes with footnotes, photographs and charts. The Library Edition has the same information as the Basic Edition but also has a 100 page “Succinct Directory to Certain Crimes, Criminals & Interested Observers with an emphasis on Vancouver & the Province of British Columbia during the decades of the 1950’s, 60’s, 70’s & early 1980’s.” The Basic Edition sells for $25 per copy and the Library Edition for $30.

For more information on this book (which comes in two versions) and how to get it for your own crime collection contact us via rpdrown@hotmail.com

NO DOG BARKED: Who killed the MacLauchlans? is now available for purchase!

YES, our story of a long unsolved March 1966 double murder in New Westminster, British Columbia, NO DOG BARKED: Who Killed the MacLauchlans? is now ready for sale.

To recap: this book, by Ken McIntosh and me (Rod Drown), is about the reputedly Mafia-inspired murder of thrice-married abortionist and heroin smuggler Dr Robert Henry MacLauchlan and his wife, Woodlands School teacher Margaret Ann “Nan” MacLauchlan.

The former “Nan” Herring, Margaret Ann MacLauchlan was a daughter of one of New Westminster’s most prestigious pioneering families.

Graduating in 1919 as a prize winner from Montreal’s McGill Medical School was probably the best thing Robert Henry MacLauchlan ever did. The greatest tragedy he ever inflicted was when, late in the 1950’s, he seduced and misled Margaret Ann “Nan” Cunningham, a quiet and modest teacher from New Westminster’s Woodlands School for the Handicapped. She died alongside him when MacLauchlan was murdered in cold blood

Following his initial academic triumph at McGill, MacLauchlan’s life had taken a much less heroic path involving drug addiction, illegal abortions and heroin smuggling. Along the way he charmed and philandered his way through 1920’s San Francisco, 1930’s Shanghai (the "Paris of the Orient") and the exotic settlements of the French overseas community. After his first wife Montrealer Mamie Hoy died, the doctor hooked up with a prominent Calgary stage actress, Evelyn Hambly. She dumped him when he was arrested in Calgary for performing abortions in the late 1950’s.

After serving jail time in Alberta, MacLauchlan showed up in New Westminster, where Margaret Ann first passed him off as her “uncle”. Meanwhile the RCMP had had him tabbed for several years as a heroin smuggler operating between Hong Kong and Vancouver.

Thus shock rippled through placid New Westminster twice – first, when a few days before Christmas 1965, the doc tor and “Nan” were arrested for heroin smuggling and again when, on March 21, 1966 in the couple’s small 5th Street bungalow, MacLauchlan was executed Mafia style – a shot in the face just to the side of the nostril and another in the stomach. Nan, who he had recently married, met the same fate. Newspapers called it a Mafia hit, speculating the underworld had silenced him just in time for his upcoming trial, a suggestion undisputed by the police. Dead men tell no tales.

Ken and I have spent six years thoroughly probing the murders and the drug trafficking underworld of Vancouver during the 1950’s, 60’s and 70’s. We have tried to answer certain important questions: just how high up in the international drug trade was MacLauchlan, with his award for a “million miles of flying” from United Airlines? Was “Nan” something more than a modest schoolteacher? (After all, her former husband was rumoured to have had her tailed by a private investigator). Who were the likely suspects in their murders?

Reading this book, you will get to meet 1960’s and 70’s Vancouver underworld luminaries like Joe Gentile, Fats Robertson and the Palmer Gang. You will become somewhat familiar with local hit men like Mickey Smith and Murray Allan Boyd. You will shake your head over basic tough guy Andy Bruce.

You will become acquainted with MacLauchlan’s little crew: fallen Sechelt socialite Thelma Mosier, lifetime loser Joe Sperling and the others who existed on the fringe of the Lower Mainland Underworld. You will hear of tough 1960’s prosecutors William Heffernan and Oscar Orr. Police Officers like RCMP Drug Squad Sgt Steve Bunyk will cross your path

Our book comes in two versions – a Basic Edition and a Library Edition. The former tells the basic story of the MacLauchlans’ demise and comes with footnotes, photographs and charts. The Library Edition has the same information as the Basic Edition but also has a 100 page “Succinct Directory to Certain Crimes, Criminals & Interested Observers with an emphasis on Vancouver & the Province of British Columbia during the decades of the 1950’s, 60’s, 70’s & early 1980’s.” The Basic Edition sells for $25 per copy and the Library Edition for $30.

If you are interested in buying a copy of either edition, please contact the following email address rpdrown@hotmail.com for further information.